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Establishing a Reference Playback Level for Video Games

Over the last two decades, there have been dramatic advances in video game technology. In this time, audio for games has moved from monophonic beeps to full 5.1 surround sound, utilizing Dolby Digital and DTS. While the games industry has embraced these technologies, there are no standards or guidelines in place to ensure that game audio exploits the potential of this delivery mechanism. As a result, there is still the push toward "louder is better." One element key to moving away from "loud" to "quality" is establishing a reference level for playback. This paper suggests such a reference level and why this would be logical for the games industry to adopt.